Shikoku 88 – Days 25 and 26

What a beautiful day! Sunday, early morning kombini breakfast, and then one of the first at temple 80, Kokubunji, a temple situated in a quite big pine tree forest, one could say, but surrounded by farms and townhouses. A nice atmosphere there in the early morning. Then I visited two mountain temples, 81 Shiromineji, and later on the other side of the same mountain 82, Negoroji. Both beautiful in their own way, very different in setting and character, though. The pictures cannot transport the feeling of being there, though, the largeness of the setting on the mountainside, the huge trees, the atmosphere. It’s Sunday, and as it got later in the morning towards the middle of the day, lots of families with kids, couples and older people flocked to both temples. It seemed more like a nice day out together for them, the Ohenros were the minority today, although I saw many.

Afterwards I went to the top of the mountain I was already on, to a rest area that used to have a restaurant and viewing area, but all that has long been abandoned… kind of lost places feeling… the nice view over the Seto Inland Sea opened up only on the drive down the mountain to Cape Osaki… From there, I was feeling a bit hungry by now, I drove into the outskirts of Takamatsu, one of the 3 major cities on Shikoku. For the most part these cities are expansive areas of small town/village structures, though, so the feeling and driving is as usual on Shikoku. Only when you come into the city center it is like a European city, with 2-4 lanes per direction and taller buildings… My lunch place was a small Ramen restaurant still in the outskirts, though, and it was delicious – I don’t dare to say it anymore, it cost only 4 Euros…

Then it was time for a proper Sunday stroll for myself – and I went to Ritsurin Garden in downtown Takamatsu, one of the most famous big landscape gardens in Japan. Which unfortunately also was the plan of many other people, including several bus tour groups with Chinese tourists… The garden is big, though, so no problem at all..

Of course I finished the day with another temple in the evening, temple 83, Ichinomiyaji, which is a small town temple, quite simple compared to the ones before. In addition to the usual temple halls and features it has an interesting new concrete hall as well, which we could not enter, though.. Then, it was just before 5 PM, it was getting dark… time to drive to my daily onsen, which this time was a small town sento bathhouse with a tiny parking lot, and then I found my space for the night at a nearby roadside station. Maybe because its Sunday, but tonight there are more than 20 camper vehicles here…

Today is Monday, November 20, day 26… which started with a beautiful sunrise (but the camper location was not conductive to a nice photograph, and my camping neighbors, an elderly Japanese couple, treated me with a hot coffee and 2 little croissants). I drove up a little mountain, Yashimasan, to temple 84, Yashimaji, which was beautiful in the early morning sun. Despite it being Monday morning, there was a bus group with Japanese pilgrims already, but I find that always interesting, as they have 2-3 monks with them, and the whole group chants nicely together, which adds to the atmosphere.. These groups consist of mostly elderly people, a few can obviously not walk very well any more, and the group seems to have fun together, too.. I should see this group more than once today… I had a long photo walk around the mountain peak, there were quite a few viewpoints in various directions towards Takamatsu and the Seto Inland Sea…

After same kombini coffee and breakfast it was time to drive up the next mountain on the neighboring peninsula, towards temple 85, Yakuriji. That temple lies up quite a steep slope, in sections up to 27%, so they have made a parking lot half way up, and from there you can take a cable car (or walk). I took the cable car up, and later walked down. The temple is just beautiful. It also has a nice statue with a wide view of the surrounding land.. After the walk down, it was noon, and right there was a little restaurant, where I had some udon with tempura on the side..

Temple 86, Shidoji, lies near the coast on flat land, and is quite large. But how strange… lots of green, but apparently not tended by a gardener, quite wild, in places like a jungle, dotted here and there are temple buildings and statues, even a big wooden pagoda, but some in desperate need of repair.. which they do, there were construction people working on a temple hall, on the bell tower, and there were heavy machines… so it is being worked on, but man, it needs a lot more. It almost looks like it was abandoned and is now being restored, I don’t know.. But the sheer amount of green gave it a nice atmosphere nonetheless, it felt almost natural… so who knows, maybe that’s the way they want it?

In stark contrast, temple 87, Nagaoji, had in the part that is accessible to pilgrims/the public only a big empty area and the three obligatory buildings, Hondo, Daishido, and the temple office. No green at all.. well, at the office there was a little, and then you could kind of see that behind there were more temple buildings, apparently also with plants..

Now, as you can see by the numbers… the end of the pilgrimage is drawing near… only one to go… As it was not even 3 yet, I decided to do it and finish the temples today. So I went to temple 88, Okuboji, which was up in the mountains again, and with the late afternoon sun it was nice up there. There was also a bus group again, one of the elder men in the group asked me how long the Ohenro had taken me, congratulated me… and as the group was getting ready to chant at the Daishido hall, I used that opportunity and simply joined them… I did the chanting at the Hondo after that, no problem.. Strange, to now have all the stamps and calligraphies in that little pilgrims book… in the end it went so fast… I can almost not believe that it should be over now… After the usual onsen I am now sitting here in my van at a roadside station by a beach park… Now that I’m finished with the temple round already, I have a few days left, and Koyasan is so beautiful and nice with all the temples and trees… maybe I will go there for a few days to round out and properly finish the pilgrimage…